People are moving here. Money is moving here. Culture is coming from here. And more and more, the biggest political fights in the country are playing out right here in our backyard.Jennifer Palmieri and Errin Haines hit the road across the South for Crooked Media's new series Long Play and naturally, they had to make a stop in North Carolina.They join us to talk about what they found here: why NC stays so close every election, what our massive unaffiliated vote actually means, the growing frustration over affordability, gerrymandering, rural Democrats, voting rights, and the question we seem to ask every election cycle:Is this finally the year North Carolina flips?Join the Holler:Patreon: patreon.com/c/TheHometownHollerSubstack: substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: www.thehometownholler.com

Political strategist Morgan Jackson on Mark Robinson's collapse, Trump's inroads with NC Democrats, and how it feels to watch a campaign come back from the dead.

If you want to understand North Carolina politics, you gotta talk to Morgan Jackson. For nearly three decades, he's been behind some of the state's biggest political wins, including Roy Cooper's historic 2016 upset (the first defeat of a sitting NC governor), Cooper's 2020 re-election, and Josh Stein's landslide win in 2024. Co-founder of Nexus Strategies, Jackson now serves as chief political advisor to both Governor Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, and he's a go-to source for outlets like the New York Times and Politico. He joins the Holler to explain how Mark Robinson's campaign imploded on its own words, why lifelong Democrats are voting for Trump, and what it actually takes to pull a campaign back from the dead.Join the Holler Here!

Round 2 with Roy Cooper! We sat down with the Former Governor and US Senate Candidate to crack a cold Sun Drop and find out what he's hearing across North Carolina on his "Make Stuff Cost Less" Tour. Along the way, we discuss why everything is so expensive now, what Medicaid cuts mean for NC families, whether members of Congress should be trading stocks, and who his favorite Hurricanes player is.Join the Holler Today!PatreonSubstackWebsite

Sheila Mikhail did everything right. She stayed healthy, saw her doctor regularly, and got her annual mammograms at Duke Cancer Center. Despite all of it, her breast cancer went undetected for seven years. The culprit: dense breast tissue, a common condition that can cause mammograms to miss up to half of all tumors. Now cancer-free, Sheila is on a mission to ensure all North Carolinians have access to the screening that could have caught her cancer years earlier. Having built a billion-dollar biotech company, she joins the Holler to share how she turned personal tragedy into a political fight and why she took on North Carolina's most powerful politician to win it. Join the Holler today and help us build a better North Carolina, one conversation at a time.

Why does one seat in the North Carolina State Senate matter more than almost anything happening in Washington?

Daniel Squadron joins the Hometown Holler to make the case that state legislatures—not Congress, not the White House—are where American politics is actually decided. A former New York State Senator who took on a 30-year incumbent and won, Daniel went on to co-found The States Project, the only national organization hyper-focused on state legislative power, which helped break North Carolina's GOP supermajority in 2024.

His new book, The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save Our Union, argues that marriage equality, the fight over the 2020 election, minimum wage, healthcare, and even January 6th were really state stories all along.

We talk about the ALEC-written bill behind Trayvon Martin's death, the Michigan legislative leaders who held the line against Trump before January 6th ever happened, why "states' rights" got hijacked as conservative code, and what it actually means to answer the question "who am I and why am I here" in politics. Plus: Knicks talk, Duke's mayonnaise, and the McRib as a case study in political philosophy.
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Psychedelics have gone from a symbol of the hippie counterculture to a serious conversation in state legislatures and medical research labs.This week on The Hometown Holler, the Fellas chat with, Gina Giorgio founder of Carolinas for Care, about the growing movement behind psychedelic-assisted therapy, North Carolina's bipartisan HEAL Act, the mental health crisis facing veterans, and what the science actually says about treatments like psilocybin and MDMA.Whether you're skeptical or curious, this is a conversation worth having.Become a sustainer today!Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/thehometownholler/membershipSubstack: https://substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: https://www.thehometownholler.com/

What does it mean to be the best state for business... and the worst state for workers? Quinn and Daniel sit down with Nikki Marín Baena, co-founder of Siembra NC, to talk about wage theft, workers' rights, immigration, and the growing movement to build a North Carolina that works for ordinary people. From helping workers recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen wages to organizing communities across the state, Nikki is on the front lines of the fight for working people in North Carolina.

Learn more about Siembra NC at www.siembranc.org

Raised in the Jehovah's Witness, Naomi Dix was knocking on doors and leading prayer meetings by the time she was 13. Today she's one of only five drag queens in history to own a gay nightclub. The road between those two things is one of the wildest stories we've heard at the Holler.

This Pride Month, we talk to the Durham native and Tar Heel drag icon about what drag actually is (and isn't), building queer community in places that weren't ready for it, and the night her drag show made national headlines for the worst possible reason.

What happens when someone spends more than a decade behind bars, survives nearly 1,000 days in solitary confinement, and comes home determined to change the system that failed him?

This week on The Hometown Holler, Quinn and Daniel sit down with Kerwin Pittman, formerly incarcerated advocate, nonprofit leader, and the man turning a former North Carolina prison into a first-of-its-kind reentry campus designed to help people stay free, find work, and rebuild their lives. From public safety to second chances, this is a must hear story!

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Nobody told Auntie Bev she was supposed to be famous. She was just in her living room, doing a favor for her grandson... and somehow that turned into 3 million people waiting on her next word. Beverly Mahone, better known as Auntie Bev, is a Durham educator who built one of the most wholesome corners of TikTok one vocabulary word at a time. This week she visits the Holler to talk words, wisdom, and how a little ebullience goes a long wayIn this episode, we get into:-How a grandson’s challenge sparked a viral movement-The first word that blew up (and why it shocked her)-Why expanding your vocabulary can change your life, not just your speech-The real reason we lose words as we get older-How to “cuss with class” (yes, seriously)-Using language to navigate politics, culture, and everyday life-The power of confidence, communication, and showing up at any ageJoin the Holler:Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/TheHometownHollerSubstack: https://substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: https://www.thehometownholler.com/